Food Glorious Food

11-16-2017 / By: Geoffrey Guy

When we look the
survival rule of three’s; three minutes without air, three hours without
shelter in harsh conditions, three days without water, three weeks without food
we have to face it that food is at the bottom of the list.

That doesn’t
mean that we should ignore it though, having to forage, hunt and scavenge for
food is a time and labour intensive activity so being prepared for emergencies
with a well-stocked pantry or for outdoor adventures with well packed
provisions if you’re headed out on an expedition is essential.

Going
on an Adventure

If you’re
heading out on the trail for an expedition being able to pack food that is easy
to prepare and light is really important. Canned food drastically increases the
weight of your pack and is going to make your hike much more uncomfortable than
it needs to be, consider instead light weight options such as dehydrated rations,
these are great in temperate or arctic conditions but bear in mind if you are
hiking or exploring somewhere very arid and dry you will need to be able to
find water to rehydrate all your food, and realistically you might want to
prioritise drinking water and accept that carrying food that doesn’t need
rehydrating might be a better bet. MRE’s are a fairly good option as hiking
rations, they don’t need rehydrating and provide plenty of snacks as well as
main meals, they are heavy though.

Remember that
having the food is only part of the battle and ultimately you will pack what
your personal tastes dictate but whatever you do pack you need to make sure
you’ve got what you need to prepare that food, this might mean packing a stove
to cook on, a pot
to cook in and spoon
to eat with, you don’t need anything more in terms of cooking utensils when you
out camping and you might even forego the stove if you’re planning to cook on a
camp fire. What you will need though is something to light your stove or fire
with so make sure you have multiple options for fire lighting, a
lighter, matches and fire
steel don’t weigh much and it really is worth having all three options.

Whenever you
head out for an adventure as well as the food you are planning to eat you
should also carry some emergency rations in case your planned adventure turns
into an unplanned survival situation. Getting snowed into a campsite or cabin,
getting injured or delayed are all reasons that you might have to rely on extra
food and supplies that you should be carrying, a small emergency pack like this
contains some basic tools that will be useful in an emergency and some extra
food. For a bit more of a substantial emergency ration try packing some of these
5 year food bars, these can stay in your bag almost indefinitely until you
need them or until they need to be rotated out when they pass their sell by
date.

Bugging
In.

So you’ve
managed to cook a few campfire meals and you didn’t need your emergency rations
while you were out on the trail but what if disaster struck and you dug in at
home, you’ve got food storage right?

In preparation
for emergencies it’s sensible to build up a stock pile of food, fuel, a
comprehensive tool kit, communication equipment and other vital supplies at
home. As you stock pile food at home you obviously don’t have to consider weight
as much as you do when you are packing a backpack, although you will have to
consider space as you may only have a small pantry, a few cupboards or maybe
you’re even resorting to storing things under beds.

Bulk storage
options, that either already come in rodent proof containers or which can
easily be decanted into rodent proof barrels is ideal. Dry good, such as pasta,
rice, flour, whole grains and dehydrated food stuffs can be stored in bulk,
will keep for a long time and are very versatile when it comes to preparing
meals. Consider as well that while you need these staple foods you will need
seasonings and other basic items that it’s easy to forget about when you are
preparing your food storage; oil, salt, sugar, honey, vinegar are all things
that you should have in a comprehensive food store. Consider some of the Wise
Company products stocked by DNA
tactical as you prepare your food stores, these bulk storage buckets
contain between sixty and one hundred and twenty servings depending on the
contents and will add vegetables, dried milk, meat and other food stuffs to
your emergency food store without adding too much bulk to your storage solution
and they are already supplied in neatly stackable rodent proof buckets to aid
storage.

We might
starve to death slower than we’d freeze to death in an emergency but that’s no
excuse to not get your food storage right, or to pack the wrong food when you
head out on expeditions.

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